…and today, it’s not with The Big Meow, but with something else entirely… so don’t expect to hear much from me today (except distant shrieks of “What do you mean we didn’t bring the horseradish??”).
…and in less than thirty-six hours from the time it was proposed.
Wow!!
Let me briefly make plain what this means. The various Big Meow challenge grant donors (with all of whom I’ll be in touch before the weekend is out) and the noble Ted Ts’o, who committed himself to match their donations up to the $1000 mark, have made a significant dent in the overall cost of writing The Big Meow — so that fewer subscribers will be needed to finance each chapter, and those who do subscribe won’t have to pay as much. The exact numbers are still somewhat up in the air, but these early donors have made a big difference…and I thank them all profoundly.
Those of you who feel like continuing this process, feel free: but for the moment, let’s all stop and take a breath: the initial challenge has been met in spades and at speed. We have, however, already been offered another challenge, which we’ll announce on Monday.
Meanwhile — congratulations, you guys! What a feat!
Now that he’s stepped out of the shadows on his own, I want to direct the attention of those who’re interested toward Ted Ts’o, who put up the $1000 challenge grant to kickstart the Big Meow online publication project.
Thanks, Ted!
So (for those of you who mailed to ask) here’s the checklist for that appearance on Irish national TV, as per my predictions:
(1) (Studio car lateness?) Extreme: never got here at all: broke down somewhere near Naas. Local taxi company had to be recruited at last moment. (2) (Driver lost?) Didn’t really have a fair chance: see 1. (3) (Haircut?) Turned out OK. (4) (Stuff to wear?) Did OK too. (5) (Thing I really should have expected to go wrong but didn’t find out about until Peter called me afterwards?) This.
So much for my fifteen minutes of fame. 🙂
Oh well. We all had a good time.
Something has come up which is going to require another day or so to handle before I post about which way this project’s going to go. It’s not a bad something: rather the opposite. (No, no publishers are involved.) But it adds an ingredient to the mix, as it were, that I hadn’t been expecting, and I have to discuss it with a couple of people.
Check in again tomorrow.
Dear, dear.
The fear of the spread of bird flu has resulted in French rugby fans being urged not to perform one of their most famous traditions when they arrive in Britain next month.For decades, French rugby fans have known for smuggling a cockerel, their emblem, into stadiums and releasing it onto the pitch at the final whistle.
With the confirmation of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in a dead duck in France, the British Veterinary Association is asking that that not happen this tour.
Although it would not necessarily be illegal to import a bird, the association says the public might think the authorities are not taking the threat of bird flu seriously if rugby fans were allowed to bring cockerels into the country.
Maybe they could bring a stuffed-animal cockerel? Or a dressed-up human mascot?
Or a big pot of coq au vin…
One theme I’ve been hearing lately in emails about the book (which have been in just about every other way complimentary) is, “I hate e-books. Please do a dead-tree version!”
Well, okay. I’m in the process of reformatting a file so that we can have a CafePress edition. (I was going to wait to do a Lulu.com version with an ISBN…and then suddenly this morning, thought, “Why? Who cares whether the thing’s got an ISBN or not? We’re not ready to market to Amazon yet.”
So wait a few days, say till the middle of the week, and there’ll be a paper version available for order direct from CafePress. I’ll post here when it’s ready.
Also, though it won’t be ready for some time, the very talented Ursula Vernon has graciously agreed to do a cover for the print version. We’re in the very early stages of discussing design. I can’t wait to see what she’ll do: I know it’ll be terrific.
Just so that people know: I’m aware that this is the Presidents’ Day “long weekend” in the US. So I won’t be posting about the final result of my deliberations until Tuesday morning. (I kind of hate to use the word “decision”: it does, after all, have its root in the Latin word that implies you’re about to kill something…) The extra time is just as well: it gives me a little more time to evaluate the incoming emails and make up my mind.)
It’s been two months since I broached this subject. Now it’s time to make a choice. I’ll be evaluating my options over the weekend.
If you have an opinion and you haven’t emailed me, now’s the time.
I’ll be e-mailing everybody about this over the course of the day, but I just wanted to put a note here, since a lot of people seem to read the weblog.
Just so you know — there is a postal dispute going on in Northern Ireland that is affecting shipments of stuff from my eBay store to the States. I didn’t know about this before, but investigation of some delayed shipments over the last week has turned up the information that apparently registered mail to the US and some other destinations does not always fly directly from Dublin Airport. Sometimes it goes via ground transport to Belfast’s sorting office, and from there to one of Belfast’s two airports. Unfortunately, this work dispute has been going on for the last two weeks, maybe more — and as a result, a lot of my registered mail is sitting up there in a big hopper with about 8 million other pieces of mail, and not going anywhere.
So if you have not seen something you ordered a couple of weeks back, please be patient — it’s probably sitting in Belfast. I’ll post some more information about this as soon as I get it.
So I’m minding my own business Thursday morning when the phone rings. On the other end is a nice lady from a production company connected with RTÉ, the Irish national broadcaster. Somehow or other, she’s gotten hold of my name, and she wants to know if I’m interested in appearing on a TV show called “The Big Bite”. This is an afternoon current affairs and discussion program featuring a journalist-presenter and usually four guests who sit around discussing some interesting topic, normally — but not always — something that won’t get too rancorous in mid-afternoon, just before the cooking and casual chat show that follows.
It turns out that Monday’s topic is whether or not there’s likely to be life on other worlds, and they thought it would be fun to have me on the show. The other guests are a professor of astrophysics from University College Dublin, Dave Moore from Astronomy Ireland, and someone else whose name I forget at the moment. Either way, it sounds like the opinions of the group are going to be heavily weighted towards the “yes” side.
So that’ll be enjoyable. Meanwhile, I go into the usual pre-appearance craziness. What time will the car from the studio get here? (Always too late.) Will the driver get lost? (Yes, even though I e-mailed them an extremely clear and straightforward map.) I need a haircut. (Thank heaven the hairdresser has time to take me today.) I have nothing to wear. (Well, yes, I do. For something like this, jeans and a silk sweater and an Hèrmés scarf — no, make that the shawl with the sun, moon, and stars on it — will do just fine.) And so on, and so on…
Oh, well. Everything will sort itself out. And it’ll be fun to get up to RTÉ again; I haven’t been up there for a couple of years.
Tags: Radio Telefís Éireann, RTÉ, the big bite, TV, television, appearance, Diane Duane, science fiction
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The wedding party lines up after the dust has settled at Boskone 1987. Left to right: groomsmen Kurt Siegel and George (“Dupa T. Parrot”) Brickner, maid of honour Ramona Sepulveda, matron of honor Beth Meacham: the bride: the groom: best man Todd McCaffrey: maid of honour Theresa Renner: bride-chucker-out David Gerrold: maid of honour Wilma Fisher.
What a day….